Ran from my parents' house to my brother and his fiancée's new house at 8:15pm. I had an LED flashlight with me so I could be seen by cars, but I didn't remember that the entire second half of the way there was completely unlit by street lights. Cars and people were not the scary part – it was the wildlife! It's funny how scary it can be to run past fields and woods and ponds in the pitch dark. Even scarier when an entire family of raccoons goes ambling across the street! That happened just after mile 2, at which point I shrieked, turned and ran in the opposite direction, called my sister-in-law, and almost asked her to come pick me up... But then I decided to man up and keep going, because the raccoons were probably not there anymore (after 2 of them were almost hit by cars, I'd imagine they scurried off). But you better believe my mile 3 and almost-4 were way faster than the first two miles!

Splits:
Mile 1 – 9:58
Mile 2 – 9:58 (consistency, baby)
Mile 3 – 9:37
Mile 4 (actually 0.92mi) – 8:57

At one point near the end, while I was going past the pond that I was sure had to be a coyote watering hold, I clocked a 7:12 pace. It was all worth it, though, for the unbelievable views of the stars. I do love Wisconsin.

That being said, I won't mind running in Central Park or around the streets of Astoria again. :P